4d. Rejection
Alicia Blade
270 words
"Usagi? Hi. It's… uh… Mamoru…"
"Mamoru-baka?"
Mamoru rolled his eyes. "Yeah…"
"What do you want? How'd you get my number?" Her tone was already defensive and Mamoru's stomach tightened. It didn't help the nausea that had built up over the last forty minutes—forty minutes spent dialing six numbers and hanging up. Over and over again.
He cleared his throat. "Motoki gave it to me."
Silence.
"And, uh… I was calling because… you see… Motoki has these tickets… to this show…"
Nothing.
"It's a musical…"
Empty.
"Are you still there?"
"Yes, I'm still here. Get to the point."
"Oh." He scratched the back of his neck, grateful she couldn't see the redness in his face. "So he has these tickets. Four of them. And he's taking Reika… you know, his girlfriend."
"And…?"
He swallowed. His throat constricted.
"And I'm going, too… and… and I just thought… was wondering if you wanted to go? Uh… with me. I mean, with us."
He held his breath. Shut his eyes tight. Prayed. Wished. Dared to hope.
Silence. A long, dreadful, horrific silence.
Then a click, and the cruel hum of a deadened line.
Mamoru opened his eyes. Disbelief crawled into him. "Oh…" he whispered. "Oh, okay then. I guess I'll just ask someone else. Thanks."
He blinked away the mist in his eyes. The phone fell from his hand, landing with a painful thud on the carpet.
And on the other side of the city…
"Mamoru? Mamoru? Are you there? Hello? Hello?" Usagi stopped screaming just long enough to hear her brother cackling down the hall. "Shingo, I am going to kill you!"